EU leaders on Friday agreed to provide a €90bn loan to Ukraine raised through common borrowing after abandoning a more contentious and complex scheme using frozen Russian central bank assets. The two-year lifeline is undoubtedly good for Ukraine, giving it cash to sustain its fight against Russian aggression, purchase foreign arms and invest in its own weapons production. A failure to agree the funding would have undermined Ukraine’s defences and its position in US-brokered peace talks with Moscow. It would have also shown the EU to be incapable of protecting its own security let alone of being the geopolitical actor it aspires to be.
上周五，欧盟各国领导人达成一致，同意通过共同借款筹集900亿欧元贷款提供给乌克兰；此前，他们放弃了一项利用俄罗斯央行被冻结资产的更具争议且复杂的方案。这笔两年期“救命钱”对乌克兰而言无疑是件好事，为其提供了持续对抗俄罗斯侵略、采购外国武器以及投资自身武器生产的资金。如果欧盟未能就这笔资金达成协议，将会削弱乌克兰的防御能力及其在由美国斡旋的对俄和谈中的地位。如果无法就这笔资金达成协议，也将暴露欧盟连自身安全都保护不了，更不用说成为其所向往的“地缘政治参与者”。